


Complain Up The Chain

by Nicxan



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: (Mostly rated T for swearing honestly), A retail worker's wet dream, Gen, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 12:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20063890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicxan/pseuds/Nicxan
Summary: William Afton gets very, -very- annoyed with entitled parents. When one manages to complain enough to get to him, he can't help but get a little testy.





	Complain Up The Chain

**Author's Note:**

> WRITER'S MONTH 2019 HYPE.  
Day One prompt: Annoyance!

Eric had met a lot of … _interesting_ folks at this job. It was really good to meet a variety of people, he told himself. The different experiences would mean that he would be able to handle anyone that came in, and show them the kind of customer service that was expected of Freddy Fazbear’s employees. The more experience with difficult people, the better.  
  
It was difficult to remember this when parents were screaming at him for things he couldn’t really help. Like now, for instance.  
  
“Listen, buddy – my child tripped and hurt herself on that stage, and I want to know what _you’re_ going to do about it!” Eric spared a glance at the little girl next to her father, who looked very much unharmed, save for a tiny scrape on her knee. She kept looking over at the animatronics, and the only thing that held her in place was her father’s vice grip on her hand.  
  
“S-Sir, I’m sorry that she’s … um … hurt, but –”  
  
“But nothing! What are you going to do about this?!” The man had started to raise his voice, provoking a few stares from other customers. Eric took a breath, and focused briefly on the nice moment of quiet he would have once he got back to the manager’s office before responding.  
  
“There’s signs all over for parents to watch their kids. And a sign for them to not get on the stage, too. We, uh, we expect them to --”  
  
“To _what_! Isn’t that what your employees are for? Why else would they be here!?”  
  
Eric bit his tongue. It wouldn’t be a good idea to mouth off to him; if the father didn’t understand that they needed cooks, people to run the prize counter, people to host parties, then it was probably a lost cause.  
  
Instead, he simply left it at: “They have jobs to do, sir. We can’t watch the kids all the time, we have to keep things running --”  
  
“All right, enough. I want _your_ manager! If you won’t do anything for my little girl, then I need to talk to someone who will!” Eric winced, and outwardly grimaced as the dad’s voice continued to rise. He almost looked red in the face at this point. Truthfully, it was a little terrifying to watch. “What, you afraid of getting in trouble? Too bad! You will be, if I have anything to say about it! Manager’s number! _Now_!”  
  
“If you – I mean, I can’t just give out their number. We have to --”  
  
“Yes you can, and you will!”  
  
It took far too long to convince him that, yes, Eric had to give his details to the manager, and not the other way around. The father thrust the paper with his name and number on it, and stormed out of the building. Eric mumbled a shaky apology to the staring customers, and quickly rushed back to the manager’s office.

* * *

There was nothing more than William Afton hated than taking calls. But this one – apparently named Kevin – bitched up the chain so much that even his regional manager refused to deal with him any further. She had called him fuming, complaining about this man in an icy-cold tone he had never heard from her before.  
  
According to Patricia, it was literally nothing, but he would not stop without compensation. Of course, he had already threatened to write multiple terrible reviews, and to put them out of business if his ‘needs weren’t met’. Apparently, he had said this multiple times, cutting Patricia off each and every time she tried to speak.  
  
He had _never_ heard of that trick before. What a _clever man_. Parents were experts in the art of bullshitting, especially when they thought that they could get something out of it. This guy was clearly not going to be an exception, and would be a massive annoyance, at that.  
  
William snickered to himself as he picked up the phone. It only rang once before Kevin picked up.  
  
“This better be William Afton –”  
  
William promptly cut off the angry tirade before it could even start. “Good morning to you too, Kevin,” he said coolly. “Now. I had a very angry regional manager call me, saying you kept cutting her off --”  
  
“Because she fucking wasn’t listening to me! My child got HURT on that stage, and no one’s doing anything about it! I am going to put your company on blast for this! How dare you think ...” As Kevin’s rant continued, William found himself tuning out most of it. He stared out into space, tapping his desk, simply waiting for it to be over.  
  
The lack of response took the wind right out of Kevin’s sails. His voice gradually died down, trailing off into an extended silence. William delighted in the awkward pause.  
  
Alas, good things couldn’t last forever. Kevin picked right back up. “You better not have hung up on me!”  
  
“No, I didn’t. But are you done? I feel like we weren’t going to get anywhere until you got that out of your system.”  
  
“Listen here --”  
  
“No. _You_ listen for once,” William snapped. “You have cursed out my regional manager. You have complained your way up to me, over literally nothing. I know what you did – Eric wrote down a detailed report just in case this exact thing happened.”  
  
“Who’s --”  
  
“Quiet.” The sharpness of his tone commanded attention, and Kevin promptly shut up. “Listen to me, Kevin. I am extremely annoyed. You? _You_ are extremely annoying. I have better things to do than to cater to an entitled parent who thinks the world revolves around him. The only reason I took this call is to ensure that none of my hard workers are bothered by your nuisance behavior.  
  
“We can do this one of two ways,” he continued. William fiddled with a pen in his free hand as he continued, leaning back in his seat and crossing one leg over the other. “If you wish, you can keep this up. You could go ahead and sue us and post bad reviews. Then, you’ll lose time and money over a little knee scrape. Because, see, we _will_ win. Make no mistake about that. We have signs warning parents to keep their kids away from the stage for a reason. Other parents follow them, and things are fine.”  
  
“But ...”  
  
William ignored him. “_Or_, if you want to be smart, you can go ahead and just quietly drop this, never harass any of my managers again, and shut the hell up when the employees are trying to do their jobs. Are we clear?”  
  
No response.  
  
“Glad to hear it. Don’t call anyone again, or maybe, just maybe, I’ll look into harassment charges.”  
  
William slammed the phone down on the receiver, and let out a long, heavy sigh.  
  
Even as an owner, he didn't get paid enough for this.


End file.
